Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Lying Liars and the Reporters Who Act Just Like Them

It was just ten minutes. Ten minutes sitting in the cafeteria to have a cup of coffee. The TV, I noted with some irritation, was on CNN, which I gave up watching a long time ago. But how bad could it be to sit and watch for just a random ten minute period?

Bad enough that I was fully reminded of why I stopped watching it.

The anchors were discussing their Facebook page, where people were posting comments on the President's speech, which begs the question - do only morons watch CNN? Or do only morons post on CNN's Facebook page? They quoted someone who said - I kid you NOT - that Obama's approach to Libya was "genius." No counteracting comments were reported, as the anchors discussed how their viewers were "buying" the "Obama Doctrine" a lot more than the "Bush Doctrine." Um... okay.

Well, I could have written off one segment, right? But the very next story was an exercise in yellow journalism. As a professionally-trained journalist, this type of reporting is deeply offensive to me. The story: A Utah state legislator is pushing to grant work permits to illegal aliens. So, the reporter talked to the legislator, focusing (as is only fair) on the reasons he supports the bill. Things went downhill from there. We had the requisite "hidden identity" interview with an illegal alien who we are informed has an MBA (wonder who paid for that) and is now "paying taxes." (If she's paying taxes, why does she need a work permit? I'm a little confused.) Anyway, the point is, this is no criminal or even an agricultural worker. This is an MBA, darn it, and there she is, in tears, because it's all so unfair.

Lest you think the reporter would skip over the other side of the story, fear not. She found a Utah Tea Party member who she allowed to comment on his opposition to the bill - for about 7 seconds. Then, instead of shedding more light on the subject by having him expand on his concerns, she asked this important question - "how far would you go to stop this bill?" Needless to say, Tea Party man did NOT say that he would kill anyone, but that doesn't really matter. Because the reporter's very next stop, in the story, was a return to "brave legislator" talking about how he's received death threats for promoting the work permits.

See how that works? CNN can pretend it told both sides of the story, but 90% of the story was sympathetic to the pro-illegal alien side, and the tiny bone thrown to the Tea Party member was tainted by the clear implication that he and his kind issue death threats.

And all I did was watch for a mere ten minutes. Ten minutes!

This is the network that is broadcast in many places of business, because it has been successful, to some extent, in branding itself as a nonpartisan alternative to MSNBC and Fox News.

1 comment:

Yes! I do not watch television, only certain clips and find CNN, BBC, etc., news biased. The commentators who openly state their biases I do not mind,but view their ideas with this understanding, the same goes for Fox.